Party deals give Buzek clear run to presidency

Attempts to stage a genuine contest for the post of president of the European Parliament collapsed into farce yesterday (8 July) as UK Liberal MEP Graham Watson withdrew from the race.

Watson’s decision to pull out means that Polish centre-right MEP Jerzy Buzek will be elected by an overwhelming majority on Tuesday (14 July). Buzek’s only challenger will be the candidate of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson.

Watson, who was until last week the leader of the Liberal group (ALDE), had intended to announce his decision to withdraw from the race after a debate between presidential candidates organised by European Voice yesterday. But his plans were upset when Joseph Daul, the leader of the centre-right group, the European People’s Party (EPP), pre-empted him with an announcement on Tuesday (7 July) that Watson was going to withdraw.

The Liberals’ reward for Watson standing down is the setting up of a special committee to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. German Liberal MEP Wolf Klinz, a member of the Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, will chair the temporary committee.

When Watson launched his campaign to become president of the Parliament in January, he did so on a platform of ending backroom deals between political groups to share the presidency. He told European Voice in an interview on 8 January that these deals, usually struck between the EPP and the Socialist group, sent “a terrible signal” to voters, because the will of the biggest groups took precedence over the will of voters.

On Wednesday, announcing his decision to withdraw and support Buzek, Watson said that he wanted to back a “three-party agreement to save the EU”. He said that the EU was “mired” in an economic, environmental and constitutional crisis and the three main political families needed to “unite their forces to save it”. Watson said he would continue to argue for a “stronger and more effective” European Parliament.

But Parliament sources said that Watson had been trying to convince Daul, the leader of the EPP, to back him for a term as president. Daul saw no incentive to cut a deal given that Buzek would not need the support of ALDE MEPs to be elected.

On Tuesday the EPP and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (SD) group reached a deal, according to which the two groups would back Buzek to be Parliament president until January 2012 when a member of the SD group, most probably Martin Schulz, the group leader, would become president with the support of the EPP. Watson is reported to be considering standing against Schulz in 2012 to take advantage of the SD leader’s limited support in his group and in the Parliament as a whole.

Fact File

Buzek is expected to win by a landslide next week as he will have the support of the three biggest groups, the EPP, the SD and ALDE, plus the Greens and most of the MEPs in the two Eurosceptic groups, the European Conservatives and Reformists group and Europe of Freedom and Democracy.

Speaking at the debate organised by European Voice yesterday, Buzek said that his priorities would be getting the Lisbon treaty ratified, improving energy security, tackling climate change and fighting illegal immigration. He promised that he would never ignore what the Eurosceptics think because “they point up our failings”.